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| Categories | Thrillers & Suspense |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Anchor; Reprint edition (March 20, 2012) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 448 pages |
| Item Weight | 11.5 ounces |
| Dimensions |
5.24 x 0.79 x 7.98 inches |
I. Book introduction
The Confession is a 2010 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, his second novel to be published in 2010 (the previous was Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer). The novel is about the murder of a high school cheerleader and how an innocent man was arrested for it. This was Grisham’s first novel to be released simultaneously in digital and hardcopy format.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An innocent man is about to be executed. Only a guilty man can save him.
For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesn’t understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesn’t care. He just can’t believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.
Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.
Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?
Plot
In 1998, Travis Boyette abducts and rapes Nicole “Nikki” Yarber, a teenage girl and high school student in Slone, Texas and buries her body in Joplin, Missouri some 6 hours from Slone. He watches unfazed as the police arrest and convict Donté Drumm, a black high school football player with no connection to the crime. Despite his innocence, Drumm is convicted and sentenced to death. He has been on death row for nine years when the story takes place. While Drumm serves his prison sentence, lawyer Robbert “Robbie” Flak fights his case. Meanwhile, Black Americans protest his false conviction, creating a law and order situation.
In the meantime, Boyette has fled to Kansas and has been living there ever since. He has been suffering with a brain tumor for the past nine years and his health has deteriorated. In 2007, with Drumm’s execution only a week away, reflecting on his miserable life, he decides to do what is right: confess. He meets a pastor, Reverend Keith Schroeder who takes him to Slone. Despite his confession to the public, the execution proceeds on and Drumm is executed by lethal injection. The town is beset by racial tension though a riot is averted. Boyette then reveals the resting place of Nikki and DNA samples show signs of rape and assault on her body. But before there is an arrest warrant for him, he takes off. In Slone, Flak leads legal attacks on those responsible for the false conviction and execution, while Schroeder agonizes over what he has done; taken a paroled convicted rapist who was also probably a murderer, out of his parole zone (the state of Kansas). Schroeder winds up making his actions public, paying a fine, resigning from his church and accepting a position at a reform-minded church in Texas. The latter happens after Boyette is caught attempting another rape.
Editorial Reviews
- “The secrets of Grisham’s success are no secret at all. There are two of them: his pacing, which ranges from fast to breakneck, and his Theme—little guy takes on big conspiracy with the little guy getting the win in the end.” —Time magazine
- “The law, by its nature, creates drama, and a new Grisham promises us an inside look at the dirty machineries of process and power, with plenty of entertainment” —Los Angeles Times
- “With every new book I appreciate John Grisham a little more, for his feisty critiques of the legal system, his compassion for the underdog, and his willingness to strike out in new directions.” —Entertainment Weekly
- “John Grisham is about as good a storyteller as we’ve got in the United States these days.” —The New York Times Book Review
- “Grisham is a marvelous storyteller who works readers the way a good trial lawyer works a jury.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
- “A mighty narrative talent and an unerring eye for hot-button issues.” —Chicago Sun-Times
- “A legal literary legend.” —USA Today
About John Grisham
John Grisham (born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 28 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing.
Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practised criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990.
Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. Grisham’s first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, and a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films:
- The Chamber,
- The Client,
- A Painted House,
- The Pelican Brief,
- The Rainmaker,
- The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John Girsham lives on a farm in central Virginia.
II. Reviewer: The Confession
| Here is a summary of the book Review “The Confession by John Grisham”. Helps you have the most overview of the book without searching through time. Please access “BookQuote.Net” regularly or save it to keep track and update the latest information. |
1. B.BURNHAM reviews for The Confession
Anticipating a very long plane trip, I looked for an audiobook that would keep me engaged and interested and would last long enough to get me through the return flight. My thoughts immediately went to a John Grisham novel. I like Grisham for a number of reasons, one being that his books never fail to entertain. I chose The Confession, a title that already resided on my shelf (my husband read it years ago). It was a great choice. Not only did it make the miles literally fly by, but it challenged and expanded my beliefs on capital punishment. A controversial topic to be sure, The Confession examines what it means if an innocent man is sentenced to death. All aspects are included: the media circus, the political climate, the heartbreak of the families on both sides, and the spiritual implications of the ultimate punishment. The story is full of twists and turns, the characters are intriguing, and the subject matter handled in a mostly even-handed manner. I think it is safe to say that Grisham writes from an anti-death penalty standpoint, a view that I also hold, though for probably different reasons. Grisham didn’t change my mind about anything, but he did cause me to see the whole process surrounding death penalty cases in a new light. An engrossing read, I recommend The Confession.
The story opens with a confession from career criminal Travis Boyette to a Lutheran pastor. Keith Schroeder doesn’t really know what to do with Travis or his statement that an innocent man is about to be executed in Texas. What follows is a race to bring the confession to light, something that is met with resistance and dismissal from all parties concerned. Travis and Keith are interesting main characters. They cannot be more different — one who has lived a life taking and manipulating, another who earnestly desires to do the right thing. Their unlikely partnership makes for good drama. Grisham’s portrayal of the circus that surrounds the upcoming execution rings true. Media, groupies, politicians, all make the situation bizarre and disturbing. While The Confession is not Christian fiction, three pastors make an appearance and an impact on the story. Keith’s views are, of course, front and center, but Grisham also shares the feelings and thoughts of the pastors of the victim’s family and the accused’s family. The three struggle in varying ways — also very realistic. The Confession is dark, so don’t expect a feel good ending. This book is one to make you think, whichever side of the debate you find yourself on.
2. MELISSA CLINE reviews for The Confession
The heartbreak is the execution of a completely innocent man. A white cheerleader is kidnapped and a black football player is falsely accused. When he willingly spoke with police he signed away his Miranda rights in good faith. He is only 17 and he is kept in the interrogation room and harassed and deliberately lied for hours until he confesses to a crime he didn’t commit. In spite of a iffy confession and falsified evidence he is convicted. Meanwhile the actual killer, a drifter who worked in the town for a short time and became obsessed with the cheerleader and killed her after kidnapping and raping her in another state, has moved on and is caught attempting to attack another woman and ends up in prison.
He develops remorse and when it becomes clear that an execution is imminent and approaches a Lutheran priest in Kansas where he is living in a halfway house while on probation. and confesses and convinces him he is telling the truth by showing him the girl’s high school ring.
Back in Texas things are down to the wire with less than a week before the execution. The victim’s mother who while genuinely grieving has a love of media attention and has a muckraking sensationalism happy TV personality filming every tear.
The convict convinces the priest to drive him to the Texas town so he can right the wrong he allowed to continue. The convict has a brain tumor and reportedly his days are numbered.
In spite of the confession and attempted recantations , the state refuses to issue a stay. This is where the frustration comes in as I am sure you already know. Multiple officials deliberately evade attempts because they refuse to admit they had the wrong man on death row for 9 years. They cling to their coerced confession like a banner. In spite of the killer confessing on live TV. Rioting ensues.
The day after the execution, the convict leads the way to the body and then the corrupt officials begin to get their richly deserved comeuppance.
This book wrung my heart. John Grisham is simply the best when it comes to legal thrillers.
3. BETH reviews for The Confession
***If you have not read the book, but intend to, do not read my review.***
I loved the first half of the book because of the race to correct an injustice – to do the right thing. I hated the second half of the book because they didn’t make it on time. Donte Drumm, an innocent man, was put to death because of the need of the racists in his town to exact revenge. And that happens in real life, not just in books. Innocent people are put to death and the state just basically says, “oops”. That is never, ever acceptable. The death penalty does not deter criminals. They don’t think they are going to get caught. The death penalty does not punish criminals – it’s an easy escape. The death peanlty only works for people who are alive and breathing and need to take out their hate and anger on another person.
Another thing in the book that made me very sad was that Donte was blamed for the crime primarily because of his race. As if the pigmentation of a person’s skin makes them more apt to commit a crime?! This attitude also exists in the real world. How I wish I could live in a world where the color of a person’s skin truly didn’t matter. Why must we divide ourselves into groups of “us” and “them”?
I can’t believe that I am the one that suggested my book club read this book – it has so deeply disturbed me. As a result of reading it I have joined the TCAPD – the Texas Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. I think that the organizations mentioned in the book are fictitious. I truly hope that I see a change in my lifetime so that Texas is more focused on correction and rehabilitation than on revenge.
4. WILLIAM D.CURNUTT reviews for The Confession
Grisham again does a superb job of holding the readers attention. Donte’ Drumm’s confession comes after hours upon hours of interrogation by the police, after being sleep deprived, lied to, manipulated and coerced. On the other hand Travis Boyette’s confession is offered freely to a Lutheran Pastor. So, which of the men really did kill Nicole Yarber?
Without a body how do you have a crime? But the gist of the book is this, Donte Drumm is convicted of murdering Nicole Yarber even though they can not come up with the body. For nine years he languishes on death row waiting to be executed. With less than a week to go before the execution (in Texas) Travis Boyette shows up in Pastor Keith Schroeder’s church and confesses that he is the true killer of Nicole Yarber and that Drumm is innocent.
But what is a Pastor to do when things told to him are told in confidence? Boyette also confides that he is dying of a brain tumor. Now the Pastor is left with the task of trying to convince Boyette that the best thing to do is go to Texas and confess to the murder and help to exonerate Drumm.
WIthout giving away major points of the book let me say that you will be entertained and held captive by how things develop. The cast of characters will include a flamboyant defense attorney, an over eager police detective, a manipulative prosecutor who just happens to be having an affair with the judge that sat on the bench for the trial of Drumm.
Grisham is using this novel to deal with the issue of the Death Penalty. While it will be very obvious his opinion of the death penalty and how the legal system is abused it is done in a very intriguing novel.
Grisham is a master writer and you won’t be disappointed with this novel. You will be kept on the edge of your seat, you will cheer at the right times and hiss at the right times. You will be disappointed with the legal system, yet pleased with the tenacity and honor of a lawyer, a pastor and an elderly judge.
I highly recommend this novel and believe that you will enjoy every page.
Enjoy!
5. JOHNRH reviews for The Confession
Read The Confession. As in ‘red’, past tense, or ‘reed’, you read this. I’m referring to John Grisham’s The Confession: A Nove l, published in 2010. I devoured it over a 48 hour period, fast reading for me, but it was a page turner and page burner. Totally engrossing. Only once, briefly, did I think “Oh yeah, another Grisham novel”. Multiple story lines, where will they converge? Grisham is a master at this. He can weave a taut tale, getting into a character’s being and making him seem very real. It was nicely wrapped up too, IMO, completing all the story lines thoroughly. Too many popular authors these days seem to churn out a great story, then realize they’ve got to conclude before it gets too long and they rush to a quick, unsatisfying conclusion. Tsk tsk.
This is a work of FICTION but it will give you plenty to think about re: death row and the death penalty. I highly recommend this book.
6. ANDREW reviews for The Confession
Loved it. As a criminal defense attorney, I appreciated Grisham’s expression of certain insights into how criminal justice actually works. It’s far from perfect. Innocent people do get arrested, convicted, even executed. Innocent people do make false confessions. When defense attorneys lose, they often do suffer the burden of second-guessing their strategies and tactics. I myself have not tried a capital (death penalty) case, but I have assisted at a murder trial which resulted in a sentence of life without parole. For a defendant age 19. Grisham does a fine job bringing in a many dimensions of a criminal case — how it touches upon a great many people. And he well understands how,the urgency of our need to have answers very easily leads to incomplete and erroneous investigations, where once a theory of the case is hatched, police and detectives often lose their self-discipline, their critical edge. Instead, they launch headlong, uncritically, into the selective amassing of “evidence” to fit their presumptive theory.
An excellent story — one that really could, alas DOES happen!
7. PAUL WEISS reviews for The Confession
A compelling novel and a powerful political statement
Donté Drumm, a young black man who had had no previous brushes with the law, sits on death row in a Texas penitentiary awaiting execution for the alleged murder of a white cheerleader who refused his advances when he was a college football star. At least, so the testimony indicated during his controversial trial. Believing in his client’s innocence and sure in the conviction that the guilty verdict, rendered by an all white jury, was based on flimsy, inadmissible, manufactured evidence and perhaps even prosecutorial and police misconduct, Drumm’s attorney, Robbie Flak, has been labouring for years through every conceivable legal strategy to forestall the day of reckoning, to gain a new trial or to have the verdict reversed.
Now, virtually on the eve of the execution, Travis Boyette, a multiple sex offender with marginal credibility who appears also to be struggling with some mental illness issues, approaches a minister in the state of Kansas confessing that he’s the real murder. THE CONFESSION is the heart-wrenching story of Flak’s last ditch efforts to put Boyette’s confession before the Texas justice system and to save Drumm from what is portrayed as state-sanctioned murder by lethal injection.
Throughout the novel, Grisham is clearly making no apologies for wearing his anti-capital punishment agenda on his sleeve. While many denizens of the political right wing may disagree with the politics of the novel and feel that such an overt statement translates poorly into fiction, Grisham’s fans (including me) will gobble up THE CONFESSION. Aside from being compelling, superb reading, it’s also a heartfelt critique of the Texas justice system as being particularly bloodthirsty in its unseemly rush to execute criminals, a fascinating portrayal of the ins and outs of the procedures of criminal law and a compelling statement against the dangers of executing innocent men and women.
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
8. JAMES THANE reviews for The Confession
In The Appeal, John Grisham took on the important issue of electing state judges and allowing them to collect huge campaign contributions from people and institutions who might have business before the courts to which they are elected. Now, in The Confession, he takes on an even more important issue in the death penalty.
Keith Schroeder, a Lutheran minister in Kansas, is working in his study one morning when Travis Boyette, a career criminal currently out on parole and residing in a local half-way house, asks to see him. Boyette had attended services at Schroeder’s church the previous Sunday and had been impressed by the minister’s sermon on forgiveness. Boyette claims to be suffering from a terminal illness and has something that he’d like to get off his chest before he shuffles off into that long good night. He’s decided that Keith is the man to hear his confession.
Boyette claims that nine years earlier, he had kidnapped, raped and murdered Nicole Yarber, a popular high school cheerleader in the small town of Sloan, Texas. He left Texas shortly thereafter and then was arrested, convicted and imprisoned for a subsequent crime. In the meantime, officials in Sloan arrested a young black man, Donte Drumm, a classmate of Nicole’s, who confessed to the murder that Boyette claims to have committed. Complicating matters is that fact that Nicole’s body was never recovered.
Donte Drumm quickly repudiated his confession, claiming that it had been coerced. He was defended by a bulldog of an attorney, Robbie Flak. But in spite of all of Flak’s efforts and in spite of the fact that there was no body and no proof that Nicole was even dead, a judge and jury convicted Drumm of the killing on the basis of his confession and sentenced him to death. For the last nine years, Flak has done everything possible to delay the execution, but all of Donte’s appeals have been exhausted and he is scheduled to die within days.
After his confession to Keith Schroeder, Boyette suggests that he might be willing to go to Texas and tell his story in the hope of saving Donte. But then again, maybe he wouldn’t. He vacillates back and forth while the minister attempts to determine whether Boyette is telling the truth or if he is just another one of the nutcases or publicity seekers who turn up on such occasions looking for their fifteen minutes in the limelight.
The story takes off from that point as the clock rapidly ticks down toward Donte Drumm’s execution, and as the story progresses, the reader gets a vivid look at the death penalty and the machinery by which it operates, especially in the state of Texas, which executes far more people than any other state in the Union. Irrespective of how one might feel about the issue, this book is bound to provoke some soul-searching on the matter.
In truth, while this is a very good book, it does lag at some points. Grisham obviously feels strongly about this issue and he sometimes overloads the reader with a bit too much detail and slows the momentum of the story. Some of the characters are also a bit one-dimensional in service of the argument that Grisham wants to make. Still it’s a compelling story and once it grabs your attention, you’re likely to keep reading well into the day or night in order to see the conclusion.
9. COREY reviews for The Confession
For the longest time as much as I enjoyed the story and the setting, there were many times I just wanted to get up and throw something when I got to the point of corruption and talk of putting an innocent man wrongly convicted to death.
In the late 90’s, in Texas, convict Travis Boyette abducted, raped, murdered High School cheerleader Nicole Yarber, and hid her body in a place that would never be found. Then Boyette sat by and watched as the Police arrested African-American High School Football star Donte Drumm, who attended the same school as Nicole, and who everyone believes is Nicole’s killer, which Donte repeatedly denies.
Nine years later, Travis Boyette is out on parole for a different crime in the state of Kansas, and is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and Donte Drumm in Texas is 4 days away from being executed by lethal injection. Now for the first time in his life, Boyette decides to come forward and confess, with the assistance of a young pastor Reverend Keith Schroeder, who has checked out Boyette’s history and background, reluctantly agrees to take him across the state line (Which he can’t legally do with Boyette being out on parole), to meet with Drumm’s lawyer Robbie Flak (who years after Donte’s conviction, still believes him to be innocent and hopes to learn the truth before it’s too late) and have Boyette tell his side of the story and confess, and prevent the execution of an innocent man. But how can a guilty man convince the entire state of Texas that they’re about to wrongfully execute the wrong man?
An intriguing powerful story, sad and tragic at times. I feel it has a lot of similarities to the film Dead Man Walking with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, where one of the main topics is the death penalty.
10. CHASE reviews for The Confession
Another well-written Grisham novel. This one covers the suspenseful hours potentially leading up a man’s execution in East Texas during which time we see if the true murderer, the pastor escorting him and the convicted man’s defense attorney can convince the authorities they have the wrong man. Although it is darker in subject matter than most of his work (including a brutal murder, wrongful conviction and looming execution), the book is full of the typical Grisham characters including powerful villains spinning a web of conspiracy versus an spunky team of underdog heroes risking it all in the fight for justice. It became readily apparent to me that Grisham wanted to convince the reader of the inhumanity of capital punishment (and I tend to agree, which perhaps made the novel more palatable for me.) Regardless of the author’s social agenda, however, Grisham is a gifted storyteller who creates incredibly believable and gripping novels. This story was particularly compelling since it seems as if it could very well occur today (although admittedly in a less heart-pounding and climactic version).
III. The Confession Quotes
The best book quotes from The Confession by John Grisham
“Reeva Pike was Nicole’s mother, a stout, boisterous woman who had embraced victimhood with an enthusiasm that often bordered on the ridiculous.”
“Sean Fordyce was a New York–based talk-show host who’d found a niche on cable sensationalizing murder cases.”
“He’s a two-faced, cutthroat, dirt-dumb, chicken shit, slimy, little bastard with a bright future in politics.”
“You need some coffee, don’t you?”
“Yes, I’ve only had a gallon.”“Death row is a nightmare to serial killers and ax murderers. For an innocent man, it’s a life of mental torture that the human spirit is not equipped to survive.”
“You count the days and watch the years go by. You tell yourself, and you believe it, that you’d rather just die. You’d rather stare death boldly in the face and say you’re ready because whatever is waiting on the other side has to be better than growing old in a six-by-ten cage with no one to talk to. You consider yourself half-dead at best. Please take the other half.
You’ve watched dozens leave and not return, and you accept the fact that one day they’ll come for you. You’re nothing but a rat in their lab, a disposable body to be used as proof that their experiment is working. An eye for an eye, each killing must be avenged. You kill enough and you’re convinced that killing is good.
You count the days, and then there are none left. You ask yourself on your last morning if you are really ready. You search for courage, but the bravery is fading. When it’s over, no one really wants to die.”“Prisons are hate factories, Pastor, and society wants more and more of them.”
“You burn a man’s pickup, and he’s ready for war.”
“Good God, Keith.”
“Yes, I’ve talked to Him too and I’m still waiting on his Guidance…”“He counts votes before he decides what to have for breakfast.”
“He had blown the trumpet for so long that no one heard it anymore.”
“They denied any”
“and not a year ago?’ ‘I should have, but I figured the courts down here would finally realize they had the wrong guy. I just got out of prison in Kansas, and a few days ago I saw in the paper where they were getting ready to execute Drumm. Surprised”
“He’s a two-faced, cutthroat, dirt-dumb, chickenshit, slimy little bastard with a bright future in politics.”
“The spirit flowed more freely and made for a more spontaneous style of worship.”
“Lo he machacado a conciencia. Ha sido magnífico. Robbie estaba en la cocina, buscando agua. —Genial, Fred —dijo. —Sí y no. Se niega a firmar una declaración. —¡Qué dices! —No quiere. Al salir del club de strippers hemos ido a un café y le he rogado que firmase una declaración, pero es como hablar con una piedra. —¿Por qué no quiere? —Por su madre, Robbie; por su madre y por su familia. No puede digerir la idea de admitir que es un mentiroso.”
“In the process, Robbie Flak had spent all his money, burned every bridge, alienated almost every friend, and driven himself to the point of exhaustion and instability.”
Excerpted from The Confession by John Grisham
Chapter 1 – The Confession
The custodian at St. Mark’s had just scraped three inches of snow off the sidewalks when the man with the cane appeared. The sun was up, but the winds were howling; the temperature was stuck at the freezing mark. The man wore only a pair of thin dungarees, a summer shirt, well-worn hiking boots, and a light Windbreaker that stood little chance against the chill. But he did not appear to be uncomfortable, nor was he in a hurry. He was on foot, walking with a limp and a slight tilt to his left, the side aided by the cane. He shuffled along the sidewalk near the chapel and stopped at a side door with the word “Office” painted in dark red. He did not knock and the door was not locked. He stepped inside just as another gust of wind hit him in the back.
The room was a reception area with the cluttered, dusty look one would expect to find in an old church. In the center was a desk with a nameplate that announced the presence of Charlotte Junger, who sat not far behind her name. She said with a smile, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” the man said. A pause. “It’s very cold out there.”
“It is indeed,” she said as she quickly sized him up. The obvious problem was that he had no coat and nothing on his hands or head.
“I assume you’re Ms. Junger,” he said, staring at her name.
“No, Ms. Junger is out today. The flu. I’m Dana Schroeder, the minister’s wife, just filling in. What can we do for you?”
There was one empty chair and the man looked hopefully at it. “May I?”
“Of course,” she said. He carefully sat down, as if all movements needed forethought.
“Is the minister in?” he asked as he looked at a large, closed door off to the left.
“Yes, but he’s in a meeting. What can we do for you?” She was petite, with a nice chest, tight sweater. He couldn’t see anything below the waist, under the desk. He had always preferred the smaller ones. Cute face, big blue eyes, high cheekbones, a wholesome pretty girl, the perfect little minister’s wife.
It had been so long since he’d touched a woman.
“I need to see Reverend Schroeder,” he said as he folded his hands together prayerfully. “I was in church yesterday, listened to his sermon, and, well, I need some guidance.”
“He’s very busy today,” she said with a smile. Really nice teeth.
“I’m in a rather urgent situation,” he said.
Dana had been married to Keith Schroeder long enough to know that no one had ever been sent away from his office, appointment or not. Besides, it was a frigid Monday morning and Keith wasn’t really that busy. A few phone calls, one consultation with a young couple in the process of retreating from a wedding, under way at that very moment, then the usual visits to the hospitals. She fussed around the desk, found the simple questionnaire she was looking for, and said, “Okay, I’ll take some basic information and we’ll see what can be done.” Her pen was ready.
“Thank you,” he said, bowing slightly.
“Name?”
“Travis Boyette.” He instinctively spelled his last name for her. “Date of birth, October 10, 1963. Place, Joplin, Missouri. Age, forty-four. Single, divorced, no children. No address. No place of employment. No prospects.”
Dana absorbed this as her pen frantically searched for the proper blanks to be filled. His response created far more questions than her little form was designed to accommodate. “Okay, about the address,” she said, still writing. “Where are you staying these days?”
“These days I’m the property of the Kansas Department of Corrections. I’m assigned to a halfway house on Seventeenth Street, a few blocks from here. I’m in the process of being released, ‘re-entry,’ as they like to call it. A few months in the halfway house here in Topeka, then I’m a free man with nothing to look forward to but parole for the rest of my life.”
The pen stopped moving, but Dana stared at it anyway. Her interest in the inquiry had suddenly lost steam. She was hesitant to ask anything more. However, since she had started the interrogation, she felt compelled to press on. What else were they supposed to do while they waited on the minister?
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked, certain that the question was harmless.
There was a pause, much too long, as if he couldn’t decide. “Yes, thanks. Just black with a little sugar.”
Dana scurried from the room and went to find coffee. He watched her leave, watched everything about her, noticed the nice round backside under the everyday slacks, the slender legs, the athletic shoulders, even the ponytail. Five feet three, maybe four, 110 pounds max.
She took her time, and when she returned Travis Boyette was right where she’d left him, still sitting monklike, the fingertips of his right hand gently tapping those of his left, his black wooden cane across his thighs, his eyes gazing forlornly at nothing on the far wall. His head was completely shaved, small, and perfectly round and shiny, and as she handed him the cup, she pondered the frivolous question of whether he’d gone bald at an early age or simply preferred the skinned look. There was a sinister tattoo creeping up the left side of his neck.
He took the coffee and thanked her for it. She resumed her position with the desk between them.
“Are you Lutheran?” she asked, again with the pen.
“I doubt it. I’m nothing really. Never saw the need for church.”
“But you were here yesterday. Why?”
Boyette held the cup with both hands at his chin, like a mouse nibbling on a morsel. If a simple question about coffee took a full ten seconds, then one about church attendance might require an hour. He sipped, licked his lips. “How long do you think it’ll be before I can see the reverend?” he finally asked.
Not soon enough, Dana thought, anxious now to pass this one along to her husband. She glanced at a clock on the wall and said, “Any minute now.”
“Would it be possible just to sit here in silence as we wait?” he asked, with complete politeness.
Dana absorbed the stiff-arm and quickly decided that silence wasn’t a bad idea. Then her curiosity returned. “Sure, but one last question.” She was looking at the questionnaire as if it required one last question. “How long were you in prison?” she asked.
“Half my life,” Boyette said with no hesitation, as if he fielded that one five times a day.
Dana scribbled something, and then the desktop keyboard caught her attention. She pecked away with a flourish as if suddenly facing a deadline. Her e-mail to Keith read: “There’s a convicted felon out here who says he must see you. Not leaving until. Seems nice enough. Having coffee. Let’s wrap things up back there.”
Five minutes later the pastor’s door opened and a young woman escaped through it. She was wiping her eyes. She was followed by her ex-fiancé, who managed both a frown and a smile at the same time. Neither spoke to Dana. Neither noticed Travis Boyette. They disappeared.
When the door slammed shut, Dana said to Boyette, “Just a minute.” She hustled into her husband’s office for a quick briefing.
———
The Reverend Keith Schroeder was thirty-five years old, happily married to Dana for ten years now, the father of three boys, all born separately within the span of twenty months. He’d been the senior pastor at St. Mark’s for two years; before that, at a church in Kansas City. His father was a retired Lutheran minister, and Keith had never dreamed of being anything else. He was raised in a small town near St. Louis, educated in schools not far from there, and, except for a class trip to New York and a honeymoon in Florida, had never left the Midwest. He was generally admired by his congregation, though there had been issues. The biggest row occurred when he opened up the church’s basement to shelter some homeless folks during a blizzard the previous winter. After the snow melted, some of the homeless were reluctant to leave. The city issued a citation for unauthorized use, and there was a slightly embarrassing story in the newspaper.
The topic of his sermon the day before had been forgiveness—God’s infinite and overwhelming power to forgive our sins, regardless of how heinous they might be. Travis Boyette’s sins were atrocious, unbelievable, horrific. His crimes against humanity would surely condemn him to eternal suffering and death. At this point in his miserable life, Travis was convinced he could never be forgiven. But he was curious.
“We’ve had several men from the halfway house,” Keith was saying. “I’ve even held services there.” They were in a corner of his office, away from the desk, two new friends having a chat in saggy canvas chairs. Nearby, fake logs burned in a fake fireplace.
“Not a bad place,” Boyette said. “Sure beats prison.” He was a frail man, with the pale skin of one confined to unlit places. His bony knees were touching, and the black cane rested across them.
“And where was prison?” Keith held a mug of steaming tea.
“Here and there. Last six years at Lansing.”
“And you were convicted of what?” he asked, anxious to know about the crimes so he would know much more about the man. Violence? Drugs? Probably. On the other hand, maybe Travis here was an embezzler or a tax cheat. He certainly didn’t seem to be the type to hurt anyone.
“Lot of bad stuff, Pastor. I can’t remember it all.” He preferred to avoid eye contact. The rug below them kept his attention. Keith sipped his tea, watched the man carefully, and then noticed the tic. Every few seconds, his entire head dipped slightly to his left. It was a quick nod, followed by a more radical corrective jerk back into position.
After a period of absolute quiet, Keith said, “What would you like to talk about, Travis?”
“I have a brain tumor, Pastor. Malignant, deadly, basically untreatable. If I had some money, I could fight it—radiation, chemo, the usual routine—which might give me ten months, maybe a year. But it’s glioblastoma, grade four, and that means I’m a dead man. Half a year, a whole year, it really doesn’t matter. I’ll be gone in a few months.” As if on cue, the tumor said hello. Boyette grimaced and leaned forward and began massaging his temples. His breathing was heavy, labored, and his entire body seemed to ache.
“I’m very sorry,” Keith said, realizing full well how inadequate he sounded.
“Damned headaches,” Boyette said, his eyes still tightly closed. He fought the pain for a few minutes as nothing was said. Keith watched helplessly, biting his tongue to keep from saying something stupid like, “Can I get you some Tylenol?” Then the suffering eased, and Boyette relaxed. “Sorry,” he said.
“When was this diagnosed?” Keith asked.
“I don’t know. A month ago. The headaches started at Lansing, back in the summer. You can imagine the quality of health care there, so I got no help. Once I was released and sent here, they took me to St. Francis Hospital, ran tests, did the scans, found a nice little egg in the middle of my head, right between the ears, too deep for surgery.” He took a deep breath, exhaled, and managed his first smile. There was a tooth missing on the upper left side and the gap was prominent. Keith suspected the dental care in prison left something to be desired.
“I suppose you’ve seen people like me before,” Boyette said. “People facing death.”
“From time to time. It goes with the territory.”
“And I suppose these folks tend to get real serious about God and heaven and hell and all that stuff.”
“They do indeed. It’s human nature. When faced with our own mortality, we think about the afterlife. What about you, Travis? Do you believe in God?”
“Some days I do, some days I don’t. But even when I do, I’m still pretty skeptical. It’s easy for you to believe in God because you’ve had an easy life. Different story for me.”
“You want to tell me your story?”
“Not really.”
“Then why are you here, Travis?”
The tic. When his head was still again, his eyes looked around the room, then settled on those of the pastor. They stared at each other for a long time, neither blinking. Finally, Boyette said, “Pastor, I’ve done some bad things. Hurt some innocent people. I’m not sure I want to take all of it to my grave.”
Now we’re getting somewhere, Keith thought. The burden of unconfessed sin. The shame of buried guilt. “It would be helpful if you told me about these bad things. Confession is the best place to start.”
“And this is confidential?”
“For the most part, yes, but there are exceptions.”
“What exceptions?”
“If you confide in me and I believe you’re a danger to yourself or to someone else, then the confidentiality is waived. I can take reasonable steps to protect you or the other person. In other words, I can go get help.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“Not really.”
“Look, Pastor, I’ve done some terrible things, but this one has nagged at me for many years now. I gotta talk to someone, and I got no place else to go. If I told you about a terrible crime that I committed years ago, you can’t tell anyone?”
———
Dana went straight to the Web site for the Kansas Department of Corrections and within seconds plunged into the wretched life of Travis Dale Boyette. Sentenced in 2001 to ten years for attempted sexual assault. Current status: incarcerated.
“Current status is in my husband’s office,” she mumbled as she continued hitting keys.
Sentenced in 1991 to twelve years for aggravated sexual battery in Oklahoma. Paroled in 1998.
Sentenced in 1987 to eight years for attempted sexual battery in Missouri. Paroled in 1990.
Sentenced in 1979 to twenty years for aggravated sexual battery in Arkansas. Paroled in 1985.
Boyette was a registered sex offender in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
“A monster,” she said to herself. His file photo was that of a much heavier and much younger man with dark, thinning hair. She quickly summarized his record and sent an e-mail to Keith’s desktop. She wasn’t worried about her husband’s safety, but she wanted this creep out of the building.
———
After half an hour of strained conversation and little progress, Keith was beginning to tire of the meeting. Boyette showed no interest in God, and since God was Keith’s area of expertise, there seemed little for him to do. He wasn’t a brain surgeon. He had no jobs to offer.
A message arrived on his computer, its appearance made known by the distant sound of an old-fashioned doorbell. Two chimes meant anyone might be checking in. But three chimes signaled a message from the front desk. He pretended to ignore it.
“What’s with the cane?” he asked pleasantly.
“Prison’s a rough place,” Boyette said. “Got in one fight too many. A head injury. Probably led to the tumor.” He thought that was funny and laughed at his own humor.
Keith obliged with a chuckle of his own, then stood, walked to his desk, and said, “Well, let me give you one of my cards. Feel free to call anytime. You’re always welcome here, Travis.” He picked up a card and glanced at his monitor. Four, count ’em, four convictions, all related to sexual assault. He walked back to the chair, handed Travis a card, and sat down.
“Prison’s especially rough for rapists, isn’t it, Travis?” Keith said.
You move to a new town; you’re required to hustle down to the police station or the courthouse and register as a sex offender. After twenty years of this, you just assume that everybody knows. Everybody’s watching. Boyette did not seem surprised. “Very rough,” he agreed. “I can’t remember the times I’ve been attacked.”
“Travis, look, I’m not keen on discussing this subject. I have some appointments. If you’d like to visit again, fine, just call ahead. And I welcome you back to our services this Sunday.” Keith wasn’t sure he meant that, but he sounded sincere.
From a pocket of his Windbreaker, Boyette removed a folded sheet of paper. “You ever hear of the case of Donté Drumm?” he asked as he handed the paper to Keith.
“No.”
“Black kid, small town in East Texas, convicted of murder in 1999. Said he killed a high school cheerleader, white girl, body’s never been found.”
Keith unfolded the sheet of paper. It was a copy of a brief article in the Topeka newspaper, dated Sunday, the day before. Keith read it quickly and looked at the mug shot of Donté Drumm. There was nothing remarkable about the story, just another routine execution in Texas involving another defendant claiming to be innocent. “The execution is set for this Thursday,” Keith said, looking up.
“I’ll tell you something, Pastor. They got the wrong guy. That kid had nothing to do with her murder.”
“And how do you know this?”
“There’s no evidence. Not one piece of evidence. The cops decided he did it, beat a confession out of him, and now they’re going to kill him. It’s wrong, Pastor. So wrong.”
“How do you know so much?”
Boyette leaned in closer, as if he might whisper something he’d never uttered before. Keith’s pulse was increasing by the second. No words came, though. Another long pause as the two men stared at each other.
“It says the body was never found,” Keith said. Make him talk.
“Right. They concocted this wild tale about the boy grabbing the girl, raping her, choking her, and then throwing her body off a bridge into the Red River. Total fabrication.”
“So you know where the body is?”
Boyette sat straight up and crossed his arms over his chest. He began to nod. The tic. Then another tic. They happened quicker when he was under pressure.
“Did you kill her, Travis?” Keith asked, stunned by his own question. Not five minutes earlier, he was making a mental list of all the church members he needed to visit in the hospitals. He was thinking of ways to ease Travis out of the building. Now they were dancing around a murder and a hidden body.
“I don’t know what to do,” Boyette said as another wave of pain hit hard. He bent over as if to throw up and then began pressing both palms against his head. “I’m dying, okay? I’ll be dead in a few months. Why should that kid have to die too? He didn’t do anything.” His eyes were wet, his face contorted.
Keith watched him as he trembled. He handed him a Kleenex and watched as Travis wiped his face. “The tumor is growing,” he said. “Each day it puts more pressure on the skull.”
“Do you have medications?”
“Some. They don’t work. I need to go.”
“I don’t think we’re finished.”
“Yes we are.”
“Where’s the body, Travis?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yes I do. Maybe we can stop the execution.”
Boyette laughed. “Oh, really? Fat chance in Texas.” He slowly stood and tapped his cane on the rug. “Thank you, Pastor.”
Keith did not stand. Instead, he watched Boyette shuffle quickly out of his office.
Dana was staring at the door, refusing a smile. She managed a weak “Good-bye” after he said “Thanks.” Then he was gone, back on the street without a coat and gloves, and she really didn’t care.
Her husband hadn’t moved. He was still slouched in his chair, dazed, staring blankly at a wall and holding the copy of the newspaper article. “You all right?” she asked. Keith handed her the article and she read it.
“I’m not connecting the dots here,” she said when she finished.
“Travis Boyette knows where the body is buried. He knows because he killed her.”
“Did he admit he killed her?”
“Almost. He says he has an inoperable brain tumor and will be dead in a few months. He says Donté Drumm had nothing to do with the murder. He strongly implied that he knows where the body is.”
Dana fell onto the sofa and sank amid the pillows and throws. “And you believe him?”
“He’s a career criminal, Dana, a con man. He’d rather lie than tell the truth. You can’t believe a word he says.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I think so.”
“How can you believe him? Why?”
“He’s suffering, Dana. And not just from the tumor. He knows something about the murder, and the body. He knows a lot, and he’s genuinely disturbed by the fact that an innocent man is facing an execution.”
For a man who spent much of his time listening to the delicate problems of others, and offering advice and counsel that they relied on, Keith had become a wise and astute observer. And he was seldom wrong. Dana was much quicker on the draw, much more likely to criticize and judge and be wrong about it. “So what are you thinking, Pastor?” she asked.
“Let’s take the next hour and do nothing but research. Let’s verify a few things: Is he really on parole? If so, who is his parole officer? Is he being treated at St. Francis? Does he have a brain tumor? If so, is it terminal?”
“It will be impossible to get his medical records without his consent.”
“Sure, but let’s see how much we can verify. Call Dr. Herzlich—was he in church yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so. Call him and fish around. He should be making rounds this morning at St. Francis. Call the parole board and see how far you can dig.”
“And what might you be doing while I’m burning up the phones?”
“I’ll go online, see what I can find about the murder, the trial, the defendant, everything that happened down there.”
They both stood, in a hurry now. Dana said, “And what if it’s all true, Keith? What if we convince ourselves that this creep is telling the truth?”
“Then we have to do something.”
“Such as?”
“I have no earthly idea.”
….
Note: Above are quotes and excerpts from the book “The Confession by John Grisham”. If you find it interesting and useful, don’t forget to buy paper books to support the Author and Publisher!
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